Ultimate Vanity Dream Projects

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David Johansen

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Well, I'm finally making good progress on revising the magic system for The Arcane Confabulation, my fantasy heartbreaker but I want to do something to make it stand out among fantasy heartbreakers . Yes I'm using the term loosely as it's not all that D&D like even if it did start out as an all percentile D&D variant.

So, here's the plan, I want to do wooden boxed sets with foam inserts full of figures. I'm a bit torn between 54mm and 28mm. It'd mostly be DIY. I love 54mm but 28mm would allow me to put a lot more figures in the box for a lot less. I sculpt but my casting success rate is pretty low. Still, a big box with a 54mm dragon would be pretty neat. I'm torn between multilevel modular terrain models and cardstock but realistically, a $1000 treasure chest probably doesn't have a big customer base. I think it'd be neat to have some indoor tiles and a fold up castle and ship, maybe a siege tower. If you've got a castle you might want a siege tower.

Anyhow, the idea is to have each figure have a separate head and weapon hand to maximize variety. You can have lots of variety with fewer moulds that way. So, I'm thinking orcs, elves, dwarves, goblins, skeletons, men at arms and bandits. Some of the models would be trios of individuals like the sorceress, lady, and female rogue and maybe man at arms, knight, and warrior. I'd also like to include a couple horses, wolves, an ogre, and, of course, a dragon.

I suppose it might make a good kickstarter campaign with the megabox being the top tier. I think if I got the wargame and campaign rules done you could even break it apart a bit and do things like army boxes and a just the rule pdf level.

Ambition, thy name is vanity. What's your crazy dream project?
 
Go with 28mm. More is best when playing with miniatures and the initial "oooh" factor is long past.

My dream project would be acquiring a good 40k army AND getting to play with it regularly enough to justify the cost AND in a universe where the rules of the game were fair and stable over the course of years.
 
Which 40k army would you play? I've got a fairly sizable guard army, 3 tanks, 3 transports, 1 superheavy tank and around 100 infantry. I wouldn't touch GW with a stick these days and won't play Warhammer. Like any abuser they make all nice when you leave but it doesn't last.

Anyhow, the problem with 28mm is that there's so much 28mm fantasy out there. I might go 25mm, keep the costs down a bit. If I had the money to do two or three sprues and do it in plastic that'd be different. If I had much demand for 54mm I might get Prodos to produce the figures, it would probably be cheaper. Figure material costs tend to be exponential, especially for metal.
 
Which 40k army would you play?

Well marines are over-represented, so none of them.
Chaos has gotten less fun and more depressing over time, on top of being over-represented, so not them either.
Dark Eldar are arguably one of the most depressing thing in the setting, so not them.

Orks are still funny despite the setting-wide doubling down on grimdark. Maybe them.
Eldar are still cool looking and slightly less depressing than the dark alternative. Maybe them.
As a zerg player in Starcraft the tyranids are naturally up my alley.
Tau look kick ass and I appreciate their North Korean brainwashing flavor. I just wish they had decent warp travel and psykers.

I'm ambivalent about the rest.
 
I've always been a guard guy. I did have orcs but I sold them off a couple years ago. I did dabble with the idea of a space marine heavy cavalry army based on my Knights Panther from WFB. I'd probably go with Tyranids these days but that's mainly because I don't like the plastic guard models.
 
Run a timed one-shot of a system-decoupled Shadowrun mission, with branching paths a la Outrun the racing game. I have a DJ mix of hardcore new Detroit Techno that runs about an hour+. Have players who know American Sign Language (and not totally deaf so they can enjoy the soundtrack) so we can process in parallel under the music, or while processing spoken dialogue. Each player gets a quarter to continue from mission failure.

I need:
Music player, like iTunes.
Light system, like nightclub.
Learn American Sign Language myself.
Players who can hear & also know American Sign Language.

I expect brain melty.
 
The Catachan command and heavy weapon crews are pretty good but the originals are pretty bad.

The Shadow Run by sign language game borders on performance art. It should be recorded and cut with anime scenes of the action with subtitles.

I wasn't real fond of Saga, might've been the Gm but there you go. Marvel's made a lot of weird game system choices over the years. I wonder if you could reskin the characters and rename them and get away with using the same system. Red Bug, Star Shield, The Awesome Quartet,The Sex People (Clairmooonnnntttt), Retributioners, Obstructers, Unmanlies, the renaming and redesigning thing could be a game in and of itself.
 
My dream vanity project is to recreate Warhammer Quest merged with Kingdom Death's aesthetic. Lots of minis, dungeon tiles, cards etc...

Would so love to do this but it is impossible without much more disposable income than I have currently.
 
My projects aren't that ambitious. But I do tinker with a few things:

In terms of Rpgs: I put together my own player's rulebooks for various campaigns I run. I compile various D100 SRDs, text from old D100 Rpgs, and my own house rules, and compile it all together. Format it as 6x9, figure out some cover art, and get it "published" through Lulu. Then pass out books to the players as a 'definitive' rulebook for their reference. Did it with Classic Traveller, but never got around to running that campaign.

In terms of minis: between late Spring and early Fall, I paint up minis from boardgames in my garage for fun. Last year, I painted up a crapton of Zombies for Zombicide, season 1. A couple of months ago, I painted all the minis from the recent Blood Bowl starter box. Now, I'm finishing off a few minis from the Ghostbusters board game. And as I have time, painting up Space Hulk minis.
 
Yeah, I certainly don't have any RPG projects as ambitious as David's or opa's... but more along Tommy's lines:

A comprehensive revision of the Palladium ruleset — less about taking a hammer to the ruleset and more about streamlining the presentation and clearing up contradictory rulings. For use with Rifts (of course) and Ninjas & Superspies (which also needs a massive tech overhaul).

A lot of conversions. Eclipse Phase for Traveller/Cepheus (not even sure it can/should be done these days); Tékumel and Totems of the Dead for Runequest/Mythras.

Also I'd love to write an original setting for Savage Worlds. Something over-the-top and videogamey.
 
Hey man hook us up with that hardcore detroit techno.
 
No! Special overseas DJ secret stash! :grin: (... ok, but maybe latr. ;) )
 
Mine?

Running a mashup of Battlestar Galactica and Ringworld: for whatever reason, a huge disaster beset humanity and they had to flee the Sol system with just a few <$_NUMBER> of humans left in crowded, ill-purposed ships. At the end of their tether and low on everything, they find a Sol type star and around it: a Ringworld (note, it's not Niven's Ringworld so no Kzin, Pak Protectors or any of that nonsense).

Like BSG, tech levels are similar to 20th/21st century Earth with notable exceptions (FTL in the form of Alcubierre drive, for example...but it eats up an enormous amount of fuel). The landing point for the Fleet seems unoccupied so Humanity makes its way there and starts to expand outward. There's 600,000,000 Earth's worth of surface area to explore, so the players are either already in the military/explorer corps or are drafted into it. Foremost on the agenda: find out who built this thing if possible and secondarily why is it so damn perfect for Humanity to live on.

Tech levels as noted are much like ours; I was going to use the Aliens Technical Handbook for ships and equipment (note: the game doesn't have xenomorphs; I just love the aesthetic). Like the Niven Ring this one has a rather vigorous anti-meteor defense system, so searches have to be done by aircraft or groundcraft. Some evidence of life elsewhere within the ring can be observed (possible city lights viewed under shadow squares, for example), it's up to the players to find out what it is.

Big huge over-arching metaplot: the Ring already has a huge (well, by Earth standards; it's still just a pinprick on the inner surface of the ring) alien society far from Humanity; I've notionally based them on the Tau from 40k. The first eventual contact they make with humans shocks them to the core. Why? They're an intrinsically all-science based society, totally atheistic. They've decoded their own DNA and can play it back like a recording, and can pinpoint key spots in their species' evolution, all the way back to going from primitive to advanced form.

Anyway, one of their cultural legends (their Bible, essentially) describes a race of "angels" (and some demonic outcasts), and early artists even created images of these beings and...

...they're humans.

Humans are the gods/goddesses out of their now disproven religious scripture, and things that Humanity describes to them (including Earth, some key points in Humanity's own history, etc.) are also right out of scriptures.

I've got a few other ideas but I'll just leave it at that for the moment.
 
My ultimate vanity dream project? It's a little weird (actually, it's very weird), but here goes...

Create a fully functional OD&D-esque OSR game based on both the dark and violent seinen anime OVA's of the 80's and 90's (Ninja Scroll is a prime stand-out example of what I'm talking about, as are Vampire Hunter D, Angel Cop, the 1991 Ninja Gaiden OVA and countless others) as well as, to a much lesser extent, darker adult anime such as Urotsukidoji, that serves as a subtle parody of both Black Tokyo (and its related controversies) and a homage of the OSR movement in general, titled Hentai & Horrors (despite the intentionally shocking title, there would be little to no actual explicit material in the game itself)

The artwork would consist of anime and manga-inspired artwork in the old 1980's/1990's style alongside amateurish old-school fantasy and pulp adventure artwork that looks like it was actually sketched in somebody's basement during the 1970's. The whole thing would be tongue-in-cheek in its intent, but played dead serious and grimdark in its presentation (similar to early WH40K fluff) and would essentially be a game of black comedy and gallows humor.

It would come in an old-school boxed set with a black cover (either solid black or with a drawing of a scantily-clad ninja girl holding a bloody katana against a white background) and the title text in text colored bright scarlet red and written in a Gothic font and the actual in-game text would be written in a font such as Comic Sans or AR Cena just to fuck with people while still being legible.

This initial core version of the game, known as the Black Box, would be set at a Medieval/Renaissance tech level and would feature elements of both European and Japanese archetypes in addition to common tropes found in dark seinen anime, horror fiction (particularly horror anime and survival horror video games), and early "Pre-Old School" RPG's of the 1970's and very early 1980's (kudos to Tristram Evans for coining the term "Pre-Old School" back on Pundit's forum way back when). The three core classes of Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric would be present in the Black Box, with the initial selection of races being Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling (they'd be more anime chibis and less like Tolkien's hobbits in this setting though).

There would be supplements for it later on, adding all the supplementary stuff from OD&D, as well as completely new races, classes, sub-classes, and other materials (such as firearms rules and rules for playing as a cyborg character).

It would be deliberately edgy in an over-the-top and nearly juvenile sort of way, and would probably elicit whining from a certain nameless forum (you know the one I'm talking about), but I'd find it amusing. It's the kind of RPG I would have played when I was a young edgy teenager. And if I were to publish it, I would release it on October 31st (I chose Halloween because releasing it on April Fool's Day would make it too obvious)

Seriously, when I was in Ninth and Tenth Grade, I was a total edgelord degenerate punk who wore all black and gray, loved anything grimdark that was anime-related (Elfen Lied, Death Note, Bible Black, Urotsukidoji, and Hellsing were my favorites back then), and listened to black metal unironically. Kind of ironic and funny now considering my present self's hatred of Goths, Punks, and edgelords.

In a lot of ways, Hentai & Horrors is many things. It's a ridiculous and over-the-top parody of Black Tokyo, Maid, OD&D and the OSR gaming scene as well as a mockery of my younger self. After all, if you can't laugh at yourself, why laugh at all?

It goes without saying that this project is meant as a joke game (if I haven't been clear enough already) and yes, I know I'm a very weird and messed-up individual, lol.
 
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My dream project. Write a custom set of rules that integrates war gaming and role playing, then go through a process of random world generation. Have a group of players play the early heroes of their people in an integrated campaign where they both lead armies and go on individual quests etc. They could play cooperatively or competitively with me acting as the referee as well as keeping track of seasons, time, natural events and the odd disaster. I'd also have to come up with a campaign system that would keep track of the prosperity and advancement of each nation.

I used to think getting enough miniatures and writing the rules would be the hardest part. Now I recognize that as an adult simply getting consistent players would be the biggest challenge.
 
I'm always fascinated by the intersection between roleplaying and wargaming. But AD&D 1e actually does all of that, it even has random world creation in the appendices.

Writing a game just to tweak certain self righteous forums is always tempting. I must confess The Crucible and the Chalice was entirely focused on writing a setting that couldn't be discussed there without getting banned.
 
So, here's what I've been grinding away at for the last month or so. Hah! And you thought I was just running a different GURPS campaign every week or so and playing Star Frontiers and painting miniatures in hopes of increasing sales.

But no, here it is, the latest revision of The Arcane Confabulation. It has new creatures and some tweaks here and there and a much revised and updated magic system.

http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths/TheArcCon.pdf
 
Writing an OGL version of 7th Sea 1st ed that resolved the various issues with skill bloat, trait dominance, and combat speed, etc. It would be flexible enough to enable the use of different magic systems (like an Ars Magicka style one, but capable of supporting modern paradigms), and different fighting schools, and different settings.
Figuring it would be good for a number of cinematic style games.
Naturally like most of us I have actually written this (though it needs some more work). I am happy to post if there is any interest.
 
So call it something else and use the mythical nations of France, Spain, England, and Portugal.
 
Well it has a different name and it is setting agnostic at its core. But it uses the same core system and a variety of settings.
 
Chaos has gotten less fun and more depressing over time, on top of being over-represented, so not them either.

I've got a bunch of Chaos stuff on my desk. Planning a "charge!" Khorne-type army...

I should restart working on my "grimdark future RP with not-shit rules" game. But... every time I think about it, I realise how many other free sci-fi rules sets are out there, and I realise how few people would care. So I go back to cider and playing Diablo instead...
 
One of my dream projects is to write up a Mad-Max/Texarkana style wasteland warrior game using Ars Magica's second edition and turning the magic system into a gadget-crafting system.

A second is to write an ancient history fanzine with gamable content.

And a third is to write a historical roleplaying game set in Scotland during its formative years as a kingdom in the middle ages - a time in which the Devil hilmself is leading the people into all kinds of temptation. I even wrote a back cover blurb:

In darkest Gallowa' twa kings brood
An guid fowk gather abut the rood
For the de'il has broached the dyke, tis said
And comes tae put thy sons to beid.

Now brae and haugh and carse once feir
Are bonny, bricht, and gled nae mair
For Hornie the De'il has cursit is this land
And long is the reach of his awful hand.


THE AWFUL HAND: Adventures in Mythic Galloway is a sourcebook and campaign set in the medieval kingdom of Galloway during the late twelfth century. The kingdom is poisoned by a Bishop's curse, and the awful hand of the Devil stretches its shadowy fingers across the hills and into the hearts of its people. The campaign follows the fortunes of its two rival kings as they struggle against the power of the curse. Can the kingdom be saved and re-united, or will it fall into damnation?

What is Galloway?
The land of Galloway lies on the north shore of the Irish sea and has counted among its inhabitants Picts, Romans, Britons, Angles, Norse, and Gaels. Each of these cultures have left their mark upon the landscape in the forms of old diked fields, ancient pack roads, half-forgotten strongholds, and some of the most evocative placenames in Britain. Here you can visit the Nick of the Balloch, the Corse of Slakes, the De'il's Dike, The Black Water of Dee, Cainsmore of Kerseban, The Cauldron of the Dungeon, Viride Stagnum Abbey, the tombs of Sunnoness, the Mote of Urr, and walk the ridge of The Awful Hand itself. Though Galloway has long been a meeting place of cultures, this “The Land of the Stranger Gaels” remains something of a land apart; its inhabitants, the Galwegians, are not quite like the Gaels of neighbouring Scotland or Ireland, and certainly not like the English, Irish, or Welsh. They are a rough and ready race, sometimes called the southern Picts,and thought to be a remnant of that long-dead race.

Put all this together and what do you get? Prophetic saints, ship-building warlocks, argumentative monks, secretive Picts, scurrilous tinkers, blaspheming priests, Norse renegades, Moorish pirates, peripatetic grave-diggers, cruel clan chiefs, hideous brownies, petulant fairies, Brythonic giants, well wyrms, murderous holes, angry poltergeists, and of course, all manner of deviltry.

Here's what famous people are saying about their favourite Mythic Galloway characters:
"[We fielded] An execrable army, more atrocious than the pagans, neither fearing God nor regarding man, spread desolation over the whole province and slaughtered everywhere people of either sex, of every age and rank, destroying, pillaging and burning towns, churches and houses... For the sick on their couches, women pregnant and in childbed, infants in the womb, innocents at the breast, or on the mother's knee, with the mothers themselves, decrepit old men and worn-out old women, and persons debilitated from whatever cause, wherever they met with them, they put to the edge of the sword, and transfixed with their spears; and by how much more horrible a death they could dispatch them, so much the more did they rejoice." Henry of Hexham

“[Our Galwegian characters were] Men, agile, unclothed, remarkable for much baldness; arming their left side with knives formidable to any armed men, having a hand most skillful at throwing spears and directing them from a distance; raising their long lance as a standard when they advance into battle.” Ralph de Diceto

"[Our Galwegian characters] after their custom gave vent thrice to a yell of horrible sound, and attacked the southerns in such an onslaught that they compelled the first spearmen to forsake their post." Henry of Huntingdon

"Like a hedgehog with its quill, so would you see... [our party of] Galwegian [adventurers] bristling all round with arrows, and nonetheless brandishing his sword, and in blind madness rushing forward now smite a foe, now lash the air with... strokes" Ailred of Reivaulx
 
One of my dream projects is to write up a Mad-Max/Texarkana style wasteland warrior game using Ars Magica's second edition and turning the magic system into a gadget-crafting system.

A second is to write an ancient history fanzine with gamable content.

And a third is to write a historical roleplaying game set in Scotland during its formative years as a kingdom in the middle ages - a time in which the Devil hilmself is leading the people into all kinds of temptation. I even wrote a back cover blurb:

In darkest Gallowa' twa kings brood
An guid fowk gather abut the rood
For the de'il has broached the dyke, tis said
And comes tae put thy sons to beid.

Now brae and haugh and carse once feir
Are bonny, bricht, and gled nae mair
For Hornie the De'il has cursit is this land
And long is the reach of his awful hand.


THE AWFUL HAND: Adventures in Mythic Galloway is a sourcebook and campaign set in the medieval kingdom of Galloway during the late twelfth century. The kingdom is poisoned by a Bishop's curse, and the awful hand of the Devil stretches its shadowy fingers across the hills and into the hearts of its people. The campaign follows the fortunes of its two rival kings as they struggle against the power of the curse. Can the kingdom be saved and re-united, or will it fall into damnation?

What is Galloway?
The land of Galloway lies on the north shore of the Irish sea and has counted among its inhabitants Picts, Romans, Britons, Angles, Norse, and Gaels. Each of these cultures have left their mark upon the landscape in the forms of old diked fields, ancient pack roads, half-forgotten strongholds, and some of the most evocative placenames in Britain. Here you can visit the Nick of the Balloch, the Corse of Slakes, the De'il's Dike, The Black Water of Dee, Cainsmore of Kerseban, The Cauldron of the Dungeon, Viride Stagnum Abbey, the tombs of Sunnoness, the Mote of Urr, and walk the ridge of The Awful Hand itself. Though Galloway has long been a meeting place of cultures, this “The Land of the Stranger Gaels” remains something of a land apart; its inhabitants, the Galwegians, are not quite like the Gaels of neighbouring Scotland or Ireland, and certainly not like the English, Irish, or Welsh. They are a rough and ready race, sometimes called the southern Picts,and thought to be a remnant of that long-dead race.

Put all this together and what do you get? Prophetic saints, ship-building warlocks, argumentative monks, secretive Picts, scurrilous tinkers, blaspheming priests, Norse renegades, Moorish pirates, peripatetic grave-diggers, cruel clan chiefs, hideous brownies, petulant fairies, Brythonic giants, well wyrms, murderous holes, angry poltergeists, and of course, all manner of deviltry.

Here's what famous people are saying about their favourite Mythic Galloway characters:
"[We fielded] An execrable army, more atrocious than the pagans, neither fearing God nor regarding man, spread desolation over the whole province and slaughtered everywhere people of either sex, of every age and rank, destroying, pillaging and burning towns, churches and houses... For the sick on their couches, women pregnant and in childbed, infants in the womb, innocents at the breast, or on the mother's knee, with the mothers themselves, decrepit old men and worn-out old women, and persons debilitated from whatever cause, wherever they met with them, they put to the edge of the sword, and transfixed with their spears; and by how much more horrible a death they could dispatch them, so much the more did they rejoice." Henry of Hexham

“[Our Galwegian characters were] Men, agile, unclothed, remarkable for much baldness; arming their left side with knives formidable to any armed men, having a hand most skillful at throwing spears and directing them from a distance; raising their long lance as a standard when they advance into battle.” Ralph de Diceto

"[Our Galwegian characters] after their custom gave vent thrice to a yell of horrible sound, and attacked the southerns in such an onslaught that they compelled the first spearmen to forsake their post." Henry of Huntingdon

"Like a hedgehog with its quill, so would you see... [our party of] Galwegian [adventurers] bristling all round with arrows, and nonetheless brandishing his sword, and in blind madness rushing forward now smite a foe, now lash the air with... strokes" Ailred of Reivaulx

What needs to happen for you to write Mythic Galloway? Because I sure as hell would play it!
 
What needs to happen for you to write Mythic Galloway? Because I sure as hell would play it!
Time, basically, and maybe a willing advisor/publisher. I have another project to get out of the way, first.
 
Mythic Galloway sounds like something that would go well in the Mythras line.
 
I'm working on my two dream/vanity projects.

The first is Phaserip, an update of the MSH (FASERIP) system applied to a wider genre than superheroes. Its essentially the system I've been using as a GM for about 20 years, so its very well tested for a number of genres. The core system is simple, and I've posted my notes on it in the games design forum, whats taking time is writing up a lifetime's worth of GM advice, which will be about 90% of the book.

The second is Claymore, a fantasy wargame that tries to capture the flavour of Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd edition done as a retro-game in the manner of Mazes & Minotaurs.

Ultimately these are both my tributes to overall the two interrelated hobbies that I love.
 
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Mythic Galloway sounds like something that would go well in the Mythras line.
It could, though it might be too niche for Loz. I fancy trying it with another system - something lighter and more tailored to a battle between the temptations of the devil and the shepherds of god. I might take inspiration from The One Ring for this, actually.
 
I call them my bucket list. I have done several of them:
A Napoleonic Naval RPG - Done!
An RPG where you ride and dogfight with dragons - Done!
An RPG where you ride birds and live on floating islands - Done!
A SF game set in a giant gas torus - Done!
A baseball RPG - Done!
A rock music RPG - Done!
An RPG based on 1880s science carried forward to the present day - Done!
A WWII submarine RPG - Done!
I got a big bucket list!
 
My vanity project would probably be writing a Boot Hill 4th edition using the best bits of Star Wars Saga and 5e. I kind of have the basic foundation done by I'd have to finish doing the class abilities.
 
I call them my bucket list. I have done several of them:
A Napoleonic Naval RPG - Done!
An RPG where you ride and dogfight with dragons - Done!
An RPG where you ride birds and live on floating islands - Done!
A SF game set in a giant gas torus - Done!
A baseball RPG - Done!
A rock music RPG - Done!
An RPG based on 1880s science carried forward to the present day - Done!
A WWII submarine RPG - Done!
I got a big bucket list!
I hereby award you the 1st Annual RPG Pub "I bet you think this game is about you" Award for Excellence in Vanity Projects!

Seriously though, that's an awesome list.
 
Thanks Baulderstone! I just posted this list pour encourager les autres. If you really, really, really want to publish something strange and bizarre, it can be done.
 
Thanks Baulderstone! I just posted this list pour encourager les autres. If you really, really, really want to publish something strange and bizarre, it can be done.
That is certainly an inspirational list of projects.
 
Sorry Chris! I understand and can't blame you.
 
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I call them my bucket list. I have done several of them:
A Napoleonic Naval RPG - Done!
An RPG where you ride and dogfight with dragons - Done!
An RPG where you ride birds and live on floating islands - Done!
A SF game set in a giant gas torus - Done!
A baseball RPG - Done!
A rock music RPG - Done!
An RPG based on 1880s science carried forward to the present day - Done!
A WWII submarine RPG - Done!
I got a big bucket list!

Now you need to combine all these into one game....Napoleonic Fantasy Naval Battles with people riding dragons and battling with rock music vs steampunk submarines !
 
Though, I think we need to be recasting classical composers as rock musicians. Have you ever read the short story Mozart In Mirror Shades? I think it was a collaboration between William Gibson and Bruce Sterling; it appeared in the Mirror Shades anthology.
 
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